The Grand Canyon

We made it! A great day with everything working together for good: all the planning fell perfectly into place! Karen snapped our picture, Gray and I had a prayer, and then we were off!

Let’s start with the weather: it was 65 degrees when we jumped off at just after 6:00am, but cloud cover throughout the day really helped keep things much cooler than they would have been otherwise--we even got a short sprinkle just as we got to lunch. It was supposed to be 102 at the bottom but I don’t think we had to deal with that for more than a couple of hours. Even had a pretty steady breeze most of the way.

The north side of the Grand Canyon down to Roaring Springs is really pretty. It is a bit more wooded and the rock has some pretty blue streaking along with the red and white (very patriotic).

This first six miles wasn’t really as steep or difficult as I was prepared for and I enjoyed this stretch the most (being fresh didn’t hurt either). Passed about 15 other hikers who were headed down as well, plus another 15 or so who were headed out from the Cottonwood campground.

The stretch from Roaring Springs to Phantom Ranch follows Bright Angel Creek, who is a nice companion. Ribbon Falls pours in about half way and Bright Angel Canyon has plenty of its own beauty to enjoy. We saw a few more people headed north out of Cottonwood but below that camp and Phantom Ranch encountered only a dozen or more hikers (altogether we saw about 80 people on the trail, not counting those lounging about at Phantom Ranch, nor those drifting down in the last mile from the top). It seems that many people who do the Canyon rim-to-rim have the sense to make it a two or three night trip. Interesting idea…

A word about distances: according the National Park Service website for the Grand Canyon it is 13.7 miles from the North Rim to Phantom Ranch. I respectfully disagree: based on the Garmin GPS unit we carried it was 16.5 miles. At least a mile of this is down, so if someone just spread out a map and measured the distance they would be at least that much short. That still leaves almost two miles, however, and I frankly have no explanation for the discrepancy. Coming up on the south the distances measure out: NPS says it is 9.6 miles from Phantom Ranch to the South Rim; we got 10.3 on the Garmin, but again, there is about 4000 feet of elevation change to explain the difference. All in all our expected total distance was 23.8 miles, but our equipment told us we went 26.8 miles! And yes, we would have still done it in one day even if we had known. Other Garmin tidbits: our moving average was 2.7 miles an hour but our effective pace was 2.2 miles per hour; almost ten hours of actual hiking time, and just over two hours of stopped time, which was exactly what we expected.

All that being said, the stretch from Cottonwood to Phantom Ranch was about an hour longer than we were expecting and that was a bit tough psychologically. We were pretty beat when we got to Phantom even though we were still in time for a 12:30 lunch (the picture of Gray says it all). We ate, refreshed our water, mixed up a fresh batch of Gatorade, changed into some dry socks and hit the trail 45 minutes after we got there.

The next hour was pretty challenging, partly because we had just eaten, partly because it was the hottest it would be for us (with no breeze), partly because the trail for most of the way was soft sand. But mostly because we had to cross the bloody suspension bridge. I am mildly acrophobic so the idea of walking 300 feet over a narrow bridge suspended 75 feet about the Colorado River is enough to send me into a minor meltdown. This was the one thing I wasn’t prepared for at all, and my son telling me to look down through the metal grate didn’t help (told that boy to shut up so I could focus on walking and breathing!).

About two miles after the bridge the trail turns away from the river and there is only one way to go—up. Not too long after starting in that direction the hiker encounters what is referred to as the Devil’s Corkscrew. This is a series of switchbacks, fairly steep, that penetrate up through the red rock, all of which lends to its colorful name.

The reward, however, is just ahead as the trail enters the lower end of what becomes Indian Garden Campground. As the name suggests there is lots of vegetation along a creek which provides some nice shade and a hint of cool. We got there about 3:00 and were feeling pretty good until we saw the mileage sign—another four plus miles, and oh! what miles they are!!

From Indian Garden to the top is over 3000 feet of up, up, up. I’m sure that our overall average speed had been much higher until we hit this stretch, which is further punishing because the higher you go the thinner the atmosphere. Now I know why so many people need to be rescued out of the Canyon…they go down a few miles with one water bottle in their hand and it seems so easy, then they have to turn around and climb back up! We did see several people about whom we had grave concerns—we didn’t hear about any rescues so we presume they made it!

About 6:30 we finally made it up the last bit. It’s kinda funny because the last half mile or so is crammed full of people strolling down for a little closer look—they aren’t trying to do anything except get a better picture. But I could tell from their faces how startled many of them were to see two sweaty and dust-crusted hikers come upon them! We were sure glad to see Karen and Kellen waiting for us at the top, and a group of four teenagers who had heard from them what we were up to even cheered for us as we came by.

I can honestly say that I have never been so physically tired as I was that night. I had to lay on the hotel floor for about an hour before I could even think about a shower. Movement was painful, and going up or down stairs for the first day or so was pretty much impossible. But we did it.

The folks I really salute, however, are the people who originally created the trail. A lot of people spent a lot of time to carve trails out of solid rock, to build buttresses against rushing streams, to dig and reinforce hundreds of stairs…all so people like us could get down into the Canyon and wonder at the handiwork of an even more amazing Creator.

And what a job He did!

The Last Training Hike

The last training hike before the Canyon. Was supposed to be fifteen miles but we decided to take it a little bit easy (party due to the extreme heat—107 degrees at the finish) and went only ten. Still, we have hiked a total 180 plus miles in the past four months, 70 of those miles in just the past month!

We’re ready…at least we think we’re ready…

Today’s hike was over part of the beautiful South Mountain Municipal Park, the largest municipal park in the United States at over 16,000 acres. Plenty of room to ramble, and some new terrain to us, which was most welcome. Some great vistas of pretty much the entire Phoenix valley, plus a cute little snake and a guy paragliding…who knew there was so much to see!

The discussion topic today was the five best and five worst memories from our weeks of training. I was extremely pleased when Gray said that his number one best memory was just hanging out with Dad…wow, that’s huge! Also on his top five was how good he felt after he threw up on the terrible hike through the Superstitions. Oh well, I guess that works.

For me, the number one worst memory is definitely the scary feelings I was having just before Gray threw up, at the point we were lost, cold, and tired. The rest of the bad memories mostly have to do with muscle soreness (especially after Siphon Draw/Flatiron and our first ten mile hike when I could hardly walk the last two miles) and of course, last week’s boredom.

My best memories? 1) Being with my son, 2) being with my son, 3) being with my son… 4) finally making it to the top of Flatiron (after wondering about the Superstitions all these years), and 5) knowing that I’m ready to hike the Grand Canyon…at least I think I’m ready…!

Pemberton Trail - AGAIN!

Set upon by zombie javelina and vampire coyotes…

Not really, but this hike was so boring we got to doing some creative story telling toward the end just to pass the time.

This was our THIRD trip to Pemberton Trail. The first time was because we needed a 15 mile loop, which it provides quite nicely. It was a boring hike that was made tolerable by the beautiful desert flowers that were in bloom back then.

The second time we hike Pemberton we needed a 15 mile loop and a 10 mile loop to emulate the distances of the Canyon. This was the hike we couldn’t complete because of Gray’s stomach issues, and this time the look was past boring.

So, the thought of going back there a third time wasn’t too thrilling, but we still needed the 25 mile hike under our belt. Thankfully Gray had the good idea to do the 15 mile loop in the opposite direction from what we had done the first two times, so that helped a bit. It was also a Saturday, which meant there were more people on the trail (at least in the morning) so that provided something to break up the monotony (countless mountain bikers, three runners, two equestrians, and one snake crossed our path).

The good news is that we made it. The middle six or so miles were very rough going (the last three miles before lunch and the first three after lunch). Not sure why but neither of us felt as spunky as we had figured…possibly the heat, possibly the after-effects of wandering around the University of Arizona on Thursday and Friday, possibly just a glitch in our giddy-up. In any case we powered through and got the hike done, which is a huge confidence builder for us both! Took about nine hours (including our lunch break) so that’s a good pace as well.

In the morning there had been 15-20 cars in the parking lot when we arrived. When we got back at 4:00pm (102 degrees) here’s what we found:

Where did everybody go???

Four Peaks

Best part of this hike: the backdrop, up against the base of Four Peaks (only one of which, curiously, is named). Some fantastic vistas over the first six or seven miles of both the mountains above us and the valley below. Nice cooling breeze, and wow, look at this, we're going down hill.

But as we all know, what goes down must come up. So, next best thing about this hike was that it mirrored the Grand Canyon in this small way...down first, then up. This hike was about 15 miles (compared to the Canyon's 25), so a pretty good training run.

Worst part of this hike: the uphill started at the bottom of a sandy wash. A really sandy wash. Imagine walking in the soft sand at the beach. But with no cooling waves. Up hill. For two miles. With no wind either.

After we topped out on the ridge things got better (trail firmed up, breeze returned). Glad that was behind us. But wait! There was another mile of the stuff right at the end, only this time the sand was softer and deeper. A cruel way to finish, but I'm glad we didn't start with it or we may have abandoned the trail (thinking it might be like that the whole way) and missed out on some great training.

But boy were my calves sore on Monday! Two more training hikes and then it's GC-Day!

An Unexpected Development

Well, we train to be prepared and to learn what could go wrong.


Today’s intended 25 mile hike got cut short as Gray developed stomach trouble right before lunch. Things were probably going too well anyway—we had done the 15 mile plus Pemberton Loop in just over five hours, remembering how challenging it had been for us less than two months ago (hey, our training program really is paying off!). The last few miles, however, Gray complained of feeling light headed and having a tummy ache. We charged it off to being hot and hungry, and to our robust pace so far (faster, really, than we intended, knowing we still had almost 10 miles to go in the afternoon).


But lunch brought no relief and as we headed out he was moaning a bit. We got maybe two miles up the trail before he reluctantly realized he just wasn’t going to make it. This was most alarming because there really isn’t another good day to try this again, and because we really couldn’t figure out the problem (which occurred on a previous hike, just not as pronounced).

On the very slow return hike we did decide, however, that it might be the red Gatorade that Gray favors. I know I had to switch off of it because it seems to do funny things to my digestion as well. Next time he’ll try half the concentration (we’re mixing our own from Gatorade powder—much more economical). We also figured out a few dates that may work for us to try again for the brass ring of 25 miles.

There is, of course, the approach of my friend Chris, who went on her second rim-to-rim hike a few weeks ago. “So,” I asked her, “what was the longest training hike you did to get ready?”

“Seven miles.”

“What?! You’re kidding me!”

“Nope,” she replied. “But I used to run cross country in high school and my coach always told us that if we could run five miles we could run twenty five miles. I just applied that same idea to the Canyon.”

“Yeah,” I said, “but that’s a lie that cross country coaches tell their teams to make them believe they are prepared even if they’re not…!”

Still, Chris got it done in just over twelve hours…atta girl!

But for those of us who don’t know we can do something until we do it we’ll beef up our miles next week, cut down on the Gatorade mix, and try another long hike in about two weeks…hope we can get it done!

Siphon Draw

Ever since moving to this part of Arizona over ten years ago I have had a certain fascination with the Superstitions. No, not because of the legend of the Lost Duchman, but just because it is such an imposing piece of granite rising quite dramatically off the desert floor.

Our target for this hike was the Flatiron, the prominence just right of center in the picture above. Named, no doubt, for its similarity to the old time iron, the cut of its jut also makes it seem like the bow of a proud and mighty warship.

The hike, somewhat unbelievably, is only three miles from the trailhead to the peak. But along with those miles is 2780 vertical feet (roughly another half mile of up). Compressing that vertical rise into the short trail (the first half mile of which is fairly flat) means that the climb is well over 1000 feet per mile. In other words, there are several sections where the climb is just that, a climb—all fours, pulling up on trees and rocks.

The trail takes its name from a particular piece of smooth granite that must be a terrifying place to be in a summer thunderstorm. This chute (shown in the photo to the right), a little better than half way up, is worn smooth from the water that courses over it. A similar (and perhaps even more imposing) chute feeds in from the left, and one can only imagine that during a good rain the combined force of all that water shoots out from its bottom (seen below) with pretty impressive results.

After two hours of vertical challenge we reached the summit, which is truly vertigo inducing, but the views can’t be matched. We were in no rush to leave, spending time enjoying the view and munching on our snacks. But finally it was time to go down, and here’s the thing—going down is really a lot harder than going up. Going up is hard on your lungs and heart, going down is hard on your legs, and in particular the top of your thighs. Our legs soon felt like they were made of rubber and I was actually getting a bit worried, knowing that we still had to get down Siphon Draw. We rested a bit at the top to let our legs recover, and then found that cutting back and forth across it (mini-switchbacks) took out most of the bite. Surprisingly it took almost as long to get down, again a testimony to how steep it is (and the fact that above the draw there is really not much in the way of a trail). All in all a good recommendation from Michael G. (thanks, Mike!) for a Grand Canyon training hike!

Usery Pass Mountain

We had planned to do at least 15 miles (twice around Usery on the Pass Mountain Trail) but a minor physical irritation limited us to only 10 miles (once around the mountain that then a quick trip up to Wind Cave). The hike around the mountain is pretty good—about three quarters of the trail is in decent condition (the remainder reminded us of the dreaded Lost Dutchman Trail). There are some great scenic views of the Valley off the northern end of the west side, and even better views back into the Goldfields from the east side. And of course the view from Wind Cave is always great!

Getting Ready

Some people have asked about the training regime we’re going through to get ready for the Canyon. If you’re thinking about doing this hike, or if you’re just morbidly curious, here it is:

First, if you are interested in doing the Canyon, and if you’re not already in pretty decent physical shape, I would recommend that about six months out from your hike date you start doing some regular exercise. Thirty minutes of cardio at least three times a week and some upper body weight training should do the trick. If you’re more than ten pounds overweight you may want to work on that as well. Three times a week for cardio and weights is my standard work out schedule so I didn’t do anything extra except to more consciously rotate more biking into the cardio mix (I’m usually on the elliptical most of the time) and to add a few minutes on the stair stepper once or twice a week to start building some extra leg strength.

The next thing I would recommend is that you buy your boots a good four months ahead of the hike date so that you can wear them throughout your training. I have been wearing mine now since the beginning of March but am still getting blisters when we change terrain and different parts of my feet get rubbed in different ways. It’s a lot easer to endure this on shorter hikes than to wait until it really matters (and by-the-way, I fully expect to have blisters after the Canyon as well).

Gray and I went on our first training walk on March 6^th but I had actually snuck out for a short walk the week before because starting with five miles sounded like a pretty robust challenge. From there we ramped it up pretty quick in a sequence like this:

Week Miles

Week 1 5

Week 2 10

Week 3 5

Week 4 11 (this was supposed to be 15 but we just couldn’t make it)

Week 5 5

Week 6 5

Week 7 15 (Pemberton Trail)

Week 8 9

Week 9 20 (our ill-fated Superstition adventure)

Week 10 5

About two thirds of this has been road work—literally—walking the roads around our house. This is pretty unsatisfying but allowed us a good way to control distances and build a base of leg strength. We’re done with “walking” as of this weekend, and from now on we will be hiking only. That is, we’ll only be on trails going forward, which is a different kind of exercise involving more subtle muscle movements and strains.

We are also done with five milers—from here on out the training schedule looks like this:

Week Miles

Week 11 15

Week 12 10

Week 13 10

Week 14 25

Week 15 10

Week 16 15

Week 17 15

Week 18 The Grand Canyon!

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!

Lost Dutchman Trail

Eleven hours on the trail, hiking in the dark, and being found by Arizona Search and Rescue (even though we weren’t lost by then). What an adventure…just wish it had been a fun adventure!

The plan was to take Lost Dutchman Trail from the Peralta Trailhead, follow it about 13 miles, and then take the Peralta Trail where it intersects Dutchman and follow Peralta back to the trailhead, somewhere around 19 miles. This would be our first hike on serious mountain-esque trails, but we got very fortunate in that the temperatures were back down to around 70.

So, we’ve been training and are in pretty good shape; we have a pretty good idea (from the Pemberton Trail) that our effective hike speed is a bit better than three miles an hour. (Effective hike speed is how fast you go including rest breaks: most people can walk at three miles an hour but then loose time when they stop for a break. Our actual pace has been closer to three and a half miles an hour which means that we don’t loose time when we take a short break).

BUT it turns out the Lost Dutchman Trail is a remarkably difficult trail. The Search and Rescue guy told Karen that our planned route would take ten hours (we had budgeted six and a half). The trail is strewn with boulders, and where it’s not rocky it is overgrown with brush and low hanging trees. Not only that, but the trail crosses numerous creek beds and is sometimes difficult to find on the other side if the creek is wide. No chatty conversations, no listening to I-pods on this hike: every ounce of concentration focused on putting down the next boot, dodging the next cactus, and just following the doggone trail! Bottom line, our effective pace was close to two miles an hour, which means we didn’t get to the Peralta Trail intersection until about 6:00pm (13 miles down, 6 to go—“Hey Gray, what time does the sun set…?”)

Not only that, but because we knew we were behind within two hours of starting we really busted our butts to keep up as fast a pace as possible. (I am soooo thankful that some friends loaned me a pair of walking poles—wow, what a great invention. Helped keep me balanced on the rough terrain, and really help take the strain off your knees when you’re going downhill.) (Going fast also had the additional unfortunate effect of keeping us from taking in the amazing scenery of the Superstitions…honestly, we had to keep our eye on the trail at virtually all times or risk injury.)

Not only that, but the total elevation change when doing the trails this way is something like 2600 feet (mostly in two long climbs of 1300’ and 900’ respectively, the rest in various ups and downs along the way). (Note: we’ll face about 4600’ when we make our ascent of the South Rim, so it’s good we get in this kind of work. The challenge faced by Grand Canyon hikers, of course, is that you finish at 7000’ which is a bit thinner air than most of us are used to. That’s the one challenge we’ll not be too successful in training for…).

So, when it finally did get dark (about 8:00 was last light) we were sore, tired, and a bit discouraged. We had only one small flashlight (because we weren’t expecting to be out after dark—lesson learned!), minimal warm clothing (ditto), and worst of all, we were sure that my wife was freaking out! We were desperate to reach Fremont Saddle, the top of the ridge, where we could only pray that we would have cell phone service returned and that she would then get the text message I had written about six hours earlier. Of course at that moment we completely lost the trail as it crossed a granite face. Ten to fifteen minutes lost. The trail continued to be extremely hard to find (in the dark) over the top of Fremont Saddle, which slowed progress even further. All told we guess that we spent up to an hour looking for the trail during the course of the day, most of that, of course, after dark.

Our lowest moment came when we got off on a ridiculous little side trail, I mean, with rock cairns and everything, but that seemed to lead nowhere. Loosing the trail was becoming very demoralizing, in addition to which Gray was starting to become mildly hypothermic (early symptoms include being cold, apathy, and unsteadiness in walking). I quickly put my rain poncho on him (the only other piece of clothing we had with us) and attempted to find the trail.

That’s when God came and met us.

Believe me I had been praying fervently (since the late afternoon!). But out loud I said, “Jesus, help us.” That help came in the form of two hikers who were making their way up the trail. Now you have to understand, we hadn’t seen too many people on the trail at all, and sure didn’t expect to see any after dark, but here they came with their headlights on. I decided the best thing to do was to sit and wait until they came by, which would allow us to find the trail.

But they didn’t come by. They sort of just disappeared into the night. “Hmmm,” I said to Gray, “I wonder if we’ve gotten onto some kind of side trail.” We got out the topo map (at least we’d done that part right!) and sure enough, found the ridiculous side trail that goes no where, and determined the general direction we needed to go to get back on the main trail.

But if those two hikers hadn’t gone by us, I’m not sure that any of that would have happened, which is a truly chilling thought. Because I’m stubborn I would have continued to wander around in the area of the two (!) rock cairns that some helpful person had put up, until I ran out of energy and hope. In the meantime Gray would have gotten colder and colder (since he was just sitting at this point), and I guess we would have then tried to start a fire, which I doubt would have been very warm (for lack of much burnable fuel). Had that all played out then we very much would have needed rescue. Thank you, Jesus, for answering the prayers of desperate, lost, and helpless people.

But, by God’s grace we found the trail and began again to slowly make our way (effective pace from Fremont Saddle back to the car: about two-thirds of a mile per hour). About thirty minutes later my phone rang! It was my wife! And then the message flashed on the screen: “Low battery, turning off in 15 seconds…” We were unable to connect the call, and my only hope was that the text message had gone out, prompting her to call me. No such luck…

About an hour later we ran into another couple (never realized this night hiking was so popular!). They asked who we were and announced that the Search and Rescue people would be along in about ten minutes. Great! Of course my wife would have called by then, but you hate to have caused so many people so much worry and inconvenience. No fewer then ten S&R personnel were gathering at the trailhead parking lot: three to come up the trail we were coming down, three to go up the trail we had started on ten hours earlier (in case we had turned around), three coming up a connecting trail we might have decided to take, and one staying back at base camp to coordinate!

The group that found us did so when we were no more than ten minutes away from the trailhead. I’m not sure if it counts as a “rescue” or even a “find” when we weren’t lost at the time. In any case, they were quite nice about the whole thing and I’m sure we’ll make a donation when they come a-callin’ for that!

All in all not a fun adventure, but as Gray pointed out, we’ve got a story to tell, and more to the point, my son and I have a memory to share forever!

Getting ready for the Canyon

Part of "The Quest" is not only to experience all Seven Wonders in an interactive way, but to do so with at least one other person. The chosen victim for the Grand Canyon is my son, who has foolishly agreed to do the rim-to-rim hike with me.

The Pemberton Trail
Two weeks ago he and I went on our first really serious conditioning hike. We’ve done several five-milers and a couple of ten milers (which at the time felt pretty stout, come to think of it), but I was more nervous about this 15 miler than any of those. Probably because 1) it was on a real trail (working new and as yet undiscovered micro muscles) and 2) it was a loop trail that didn’t afford the option to call the wife for a rescue if needed.

We got through it, although the last two miles were a bit of a challenge. We had made the decision not to stop again after our 9 mile rest. In retrospect this was a mistake, but that’s why one takes practice hikes! There was good cloud cover, for which we were grateful—it was 85 degrees or so anyway and would have been pretty brutal if the sun had been out. Those days are coming, for sure, and that’s okay since it will be 90-100 at the canyon bottom on June 30^th.

The Pemberton trail is located in the McDowell Mountain Regional Park. It probably gets the most use by mountain bikers and horses, but it was a fairly easy loop trail with only about 650 feet in elevation change to contend with. I suspect we’ll get back there for at least a couple more training hikes as it offers a lot of trail options. We will also need to get into some steeper elevation changes, and to that end have at least one hike planned in the Superstitions (Weaver’s Needle loop – about 18 miles).

I’m amazed by my son’s capacity to come up with interesting questions. Samples from yesterday include: “If you could retain your current knowledge, what point of time would you travel back to?” (Both of us thought just after the middle ages might be ideal, although I also imagined that going back to 1998 and making some good stock picks could be useful…) “If you could appoint anyone to be President, who would it be.” (My answer, myself—why not? Gray’s answer—Glen Beck!) It provided some pleasant conversation on a long hike.

We also both enjoy listening to our I-Pods for at least an hour or so. I am torn on this—it seems

to my purist way of thinking a bit of a desecration to take electrons into the wilderness. On the other hand, when we’re at mile 20 trying to push up the face of the south rim in 95 degrees I think a little Van Halen might help! I also noticed a significant energy boost from my double shot Starbucks expresso and cream in a can—perfect for hiking!

All in all it was a good start to our serious training. The next hike will be in the Superstitions and will feature more elevation changes--should be challenging!

First Up - The Grand Canyon

So I guess it wouldn't be too hard to imagine that the first wonder on the list is the Grand Canyon, seeing as how it's pretty much right here in my backyard (globally speaking). Of course I've seen the Canyon many times before, but I've never experienced it in the intensive wonder-way planned for this summer.

A rim-to-rim hike.

In one day.

Yes, I know, others have done it. But it still sounds like a huge challenge, and everything you read does little to change that impression. So let the training begin!

The Quest

Wonder.

A word, a concept, that connects to so many others:
curiosity
amazement
gratitude

My quest is to experience the Seven Natural Wonders of the World first hand, hopefully in some interactive way.
Because I'm curious.
Because I'm amazed.
Because I am grateful.

Of course, there is an issue with defining the seven wonders. The earliest list I can find, oddly enough, goes back to a CNN poll taken in 1997. More recently there have been movements to not only preserve and protect the original seven wonders but also to name seven new wonders, ostensibly drawn from a much larger voting pool as made possible by the world wide web. This elaborate voting campaign will reveal its final conclusions on 11/11/11.

All that is to say that a list of the seven natural wonders of the world is a bit subjective! The original list included the Grand Canyon, the Northern Lights, the Great Barrier Reef, Victoria Falls, Mount Everest, the harbor of Rio De Janeiro, and a volcano you've probably never heard of called Paricutin (in Mexico). I guess I'll live with this list for now, and see what the new list has on it. Who knows, my quest may become the Fourteen Natural Wonders of the World!

But then there is the chicken soupish story of the elementary school teacher discussing this very question with her geography class. The teacher asked each student to compile a list of their candidates for the Seven Greatest Wonders of the world. Several obvious places received a lot of votes -- Egypt's Great Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, China's Great Wall, and so on.

While gathering the votes the teacher noticed that one of the students, a quiet girl, hadn't turned in her paper yet. The teacher asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The quiet girl replied, "Yes, a little. I couldn't quite make up my mind because there are so many." The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have and maybe we can help." The girl hesitated, then read, "I think the 7 wonders of the world are:

1. to touch

2. to taste

3. to see

4. to hear

... she hesitated a little, and then she added,

5. to feel

6. to laugh

7. and to love

The silence in the classroom was deafening.

In our quest to find the great wonders of this world let us not fail to see the simple wonders all around us.